Our Story

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Our story

We never wanted to start another hair‑extension brand.

Whitney and Jonathan Sexsmith

Frustration sparked revolution.

A $4,500 set of extensions for our wedding fell apart within weeks.

What shocked us almost as much as the failure was how normal everyone seemed to think it was.

We came to it with a very different frame of reference. Whitney had spent years developing products across international markets while also working as a licensed cosmetologist and extension specialist. Jonathan had spent decades building and operating businesses across beauty, wellness, and consumer technology.

We knew what real product development looked like.

Then we learned how much of the extension industry worked.

Find a factory. Choose from what it already makes. Change the colors, lengths, textures and attachments. Put your name on the box.

That isn’t product creation. It’s customization.

And that’s not something we would ever be interested in.

Why we did it

If the opportunity was to build another “me‑too”, “copy cat” brand, it wasn’t worth our time.

We would never enter one of the most saturated categories in beauty just to resell somebody else’s hair.

The hair extension brand blue print is obvious:

Find a factory. Pick the best-looking sample. Choose the colors, lengths, textures and attachments. Put your logo on it. Say you created the best hair on the planet and solved all the industry problems.

If we were going to do this, we had to truly be able to create our product, and be in control of the entire process, so that we would be able to solve the major industry wide complaints. We also needed to have a product that was proprietary and something that had a true differentiator. Otherwise we were not going to do it.

Whitney and Jonathan Sexsmith

The homework

The more we learned, the less interested we became in doing it the normal way.

  • $600K+in one global hair report alone.
  • 12BRANDS PURCHASED AT RETAIL AND INDEPENDENTLY TESTED for claim verification.
  • GLOBALMANUFACTURING OPERATIONS EVALUATED

We have always made decisions from research, not assumptions, so we approached hair the same way. We already subscribe to the top corporate industry periodicals and research reports. We bought more global industry research specifically on hair, bought a ridiculous amount of hair, independently tested products from across the category, and evaluated manufacturing operations around the world.

Some facilities were so filthy there was no need to continue further. Others were too shared, too opaque, and simply could not give us the full control we needed.

We were not looking to buy products from “the least-bad supplier.” We were deciding whether there was a version of the business worth doing at all.

The decision

We could walk away. Or build the company we had been trying to find.

We chose the second.

By then, one thing was obvious. If we wanted to take responsibility for the quality of the product, we had to take responsibility for the decisions that created it.

That meant building the capabilities we couldn’t find elsewhere instead of accepting the model that already existed.

That decision is Prolonged Hair.

The rest of this website shows you what we built from there.

See the Prolonged Difference
Whitney and Jonathan Sexsmith

Built together

We’re husband and wife, best friends, business partners, and a team.

We built Prolonged Hair side by side, and we still build it that way every day. There isn’t a clean division between “hers” and “his.” We share the decisions, the problems, the wins, the work, and the responsibility.

Neither of us could have built this alone. Nor would we have wanted to.

Whitney Sexsmith

Meet

Whitney Sexsmith

President & Co-Founder of Prolonged Hair

Whitney Sexsmith embodies the rare union of artistry, intellect, and uncompromising pursuit of excellence. By seventeen, she had earned her cosmetology license, multiple advanced certifications, and cultivated a loyal celebrity clientele drawn to her precision and discernment.

Determined to merge creativity with strategy, she went on to earn a BBA and MBA in Innovative Product Development and Marketing, fusing design instinct with commercial discipline.

Over the past 15 years, Whitney has directed 550+ launches across 53 international markets, guided 35+ global brands, and built a reputation for integrity, innovation, and transparency.

Her masterpiece is Prolonged Hair—a house built not on promises but on proof. Under Whitney’s leadership, the brand has rebuilt what a hair extension company is: documented sourcing, independent testing on every batch, and standards worthy of the world’s most discerning professionals.

Whitney does more than shape products. She elevates an industry—transforming extensions from commodity to craft, and beauty itself into a statement of truth, transparency, and timeless refinement.

Jonathan Sexsmith

Meet

Jonathan Sexsmith

CEO & Co-Founder of Prolonged Hair

Jonathan Sexsmith embodies vision, discipline, and relentless execution. Over decades of global leadership, he has scaled companies, secured capital, and built networks that have generated billions in revenue across beauty, wellness, and advanced consumer technologies.

A builder of both people and platforms, Jonathan has trained and empowered 500,000+ entrepreneurs across 50+ countries, translating ambition into achievement at scale. His career spans entertainment, consumer technology, skincare, and nutrition, with strategic alliances across the Fortune 100.

At Prolonged Hair, Jonathan built the supply chain model and the documentation standard the company runs on, developed our patent-pending keratin-bond removal system, and directs the relationships that position the company for enduring scale.

Jonathan does more than build companies. He transforms vision into institutions, creating infrastructure, certainty, and legacy where others see only aspiration.

Whitney and Jonathan Sexsmith in Dubai

Still building. Together.

We are so excited that we get to build Prolonged Hair every day. We genuinely love what we’re creating and the people this company has brought into our lives.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to get to know us.

And if you see us at a Prolonged Hair event somewhere in the world, come say hello.

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